| Print page | Close window |
The Ushi No Tane websites specialize in information, FAQs, and guides about the Nintendo console versions of the Harvest Moon, Story of Seasons, and Legend of the River King video games. These game genres are created and published in Japan by Marvelous (JP). In other regions, you'll find Natsume, XSeed Games/Marvelous (USA), Marvelous (EU), and Rising Star involved in the series' release.
The latest version of the mainstream farming series that have been released in various regions of the world are:
The latest version of River King, in all regions of the world, is River King: Mystic Valley (JP 2007, NA 2008, EU 2009).
Since 2000, Ushi no Tane has been run by a grouchy old lady who happens to be fond of video game agriculture along with two feline helpers: Intern Captain Bootu and Intern Hondo Mewnaka. The website is not officially affiliated, sponsored, endorsed, or employed by the developers of Harvest Moon, Story of Seasons, or River King. This is simply a fan site.
Happy Farm'n Friday! In the summertime we'll typically get a bird's nest somewhere around the house. Usually it is a Junco nest in the flower baskets that hang off of the front porch, which makes it difficult to water the flowers without upsetting momma bird and the chicks.
Last weekend we discovered a bird corpse under one of the tall tree in the front yard. Then we found several more! Soon we located a Cooper's Hawk nest high up in the tree next to the driveway. The nest had been there for weeks and we didn't know! The chick is now old enough to fly on its own, but it doesn't know how to hunt yet. When it's hungry it will hop around the trees and cry out until its hawk parents bring it various small birds they've caught. Yesterday Mr.Fogu found the fledgling hanging out by the backyard patio door underneath the song bird feeders. Naturally the Juncos, Chickadees, Pine Siskins, and the House Finches stayed away from the bird feeders until the juvenile hawk flew away. It's outside right now crying for its parents to bring it more food, even though I observed it devouring a bird earlier this morning.
At least it isn't eating my tomatoes, eigh? There haven't been as many tree rats around with the hawk family living close by, so the raptors are welcome to stay here for as long as they want!
This week Marvelous revealed additional character redesigns for their upcoming game, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town, scheduled to be released in Japan on October 17th.
Ann and Kai have been added to the roster on official Japanese website along with Manna, Duke, and Doug, which leaves the two new marriage candidates, Won, Gotz, Zack, and Gourmet as unknowns; portraits of hipster Kappa and the Goddess appeared in previously released screen shots.
More bits of new information came via an interview with the game's producer Hikaru Nakano of Marvelous that took place during Chinajoy 2019 last week and posted on Chinese video game news website A9VG:
The most significant revelation from the A9VG interview is the inclusion of same-gender courting being available in the Switch remake of Friends of Mineral Town (at least in the Asian version he was being interviewed about). Hikaru explains that the male protagonist can court the girls and also the other male characters. Instead of a marriage ceremony, a friendship ceremony takes place; basically the Best Friends system from Harvest Moon DS Cute. Only one partner can be selected to participate in the ceremony.
It is unknown yet if this also holds true for the female protagonist, as Hikaru specifically stated in the interview that it was the male protagonist who can pursue other male characters. In the original GBA game the male protagonist had 6 marriage candidates (Ann, Elli, Goddess, Karen, Mary, and Popuri) while the female protagonist had 8 (Cliff, Doctor, Gray, Kai, Rick, Kappa, Won, and Gourmet). Perhaps this is Marvelous' way of adding additional candidates to the male protagonist. Both protagonists have one new mystery candidate in the Switch edition.
Bandai Namco JP is having a show-off-your-farm photo contest for players of the Japanese version of Doraemon: Story of Seasons. From now until September 1, players can Tweet a screen shot of their in-game farm and tag their entry using the hashtag #ドラ牧牧場コンテスト. The grand prize winner will receive a framed copy of their farm picture placed in a special Doraemon Bokumono picture frame, and 9 second place winners will receive Doraemon items.
You can learn more about this latest contest at the Doraemon:SoS website:
Doraemon:SoS hung on another week in Famitsu's weekly sales data, selling another 1900 copies last week, putting its 7-week sales number at 82,500 copies. The North American release date is scheduled for Fall of this year.
As for Rune Factory 4 SE, the game sold 6200 copies last week, putting its total 2-week sales at about 44,100. The game is ranked #5 out of 30 on Nintendo's JP eShop rankings.
As for my adventures through Rune Factory 3, I finally asked Carmen if she's like to marry me because apparently I have to get married in RF3 to finish the main story line. I'm glad I moved forward with that, as I didn't know that plot point would unlock the final dungeon. I'm getting closer to finishing the game, I think!
Until next time! - Cher (A thunderstorm rolled through this afternoon and watered all the crops!) Feedback: Add | View (4)| << Previous page | Next page >> |